East Midlands Water Company

Water Softeners - Remove Limescale

A water softener is designed to remove the minerals that cause hard water, primarily calcium and magnesium. This helps prevent limescale throughout your home, protecting appliances, heating systems and pipework while making bathing and cleaning more enjoyable.

A water softener is the right choice if you:

• Have white marks on taps, shower screens or glassware.
  
• Regularly descale your kettle or shower head.
  
• Want to protect your boiler and household appliances.
  
• Want softer-feeling water for bathing, washing and cleaning.

👉 Shop Water Softeners

Water Filters - Better Tasting Tap Water

A water filter improves the quality and taste of your drinking water by reducing chlorine, unpleasant tastes, odours and selected impurities. Depending on the type of filter, it may also reduce sediment and other contaminants.

A water filter is ideal if you:

• Don't like the taste or smell of your tap water.
  
• Want to reduce chlorine.
  
• Want filtered drinking water without changing the water throughout your home.
  
• Want a simple, cost-effective alternative to bottled water.

A water filter does not remove the hardness minerals that cause limescale.

👉 Shop Water Filters

Reverse Osmosis – Ultra-Pure Drinking Water

Reverse osmosis (RO) systems provide the highest level of drinking water purification available for most homes. They use a semi-permeable membrane to reduce a much wider range of dissolved contaminants than a standard water filter, producing exceptionally pure water from a dedicated kitchen tap.

Reverse osmosis is ideal if you:

• Want the purest possible drinking water.
  
• Want a higher level of contaminant reduction.
  
• Enjoy making tea, coffee or cooking with purified water.
  
• Need high-purity water for specialist applications.

👉 Shop Reverse Osmosis Systems

Tap water in the UK is generally considered safe to drink and is highly regulated. However, many homeowners still choose water filtration systems to improve taste, reduce chlorine, eliminate limescale-related impurities, and lower exposure to any remaining contaminants.

Households use water filters because water can pick up chemicals, dissolved substances, and impurities as it travels through pipes and the environment before reaching the tap.

Common reasons why UK homeowners filter their tap water include: improving taste and odor, reducing chlorine, removing sediment and particles, reducing heavy metals, filtering out microplastics, improving water quality for cooking and beverages, and protecting appliances from impurities. In hard water areas (such as much of England) water softeners prevent limescale buildup in kettles, showers, boilers, and household appliances.

A water filter removes impurities, chemicals, and unwanted tastes from your drinking water, improving both its quality and flavor. At East Midlands Water, our drinking water filters are designed to reduce common contaminants found in UK tap water while retaining the healthy minerals naturally present in the water.

Depending on the filtration system used, a water filter can help reduce: chlorine; unpleasant tastes and odors; sediment and rust particles; dirt and debris; organic chemicals; microplastics; certain pesticides and herbicides; heavy metals such as lead; limescale particles; and water turbidity.

The BT65 water filtration system uses advanced carbon filtration technology to improve the taste, odor, and clarity of your drinking water, providing cleaner, fresher water straight from your tap. Many customers choose water filtration systems because they: prefer better-tasting drinking water; want to reduce chlorine in tap water; are concerned about impurities; want filtered water for cooking, tea, and coffee; and want an eco-friendly alternative to bottled water.

For customers requiring even higher levels of filtration, East Midlands Water also supplies reverse osmosis systems capable of removing a wider range of dissolved contaminants and producing ultra-pure drinking water.

If you live in a hard water area, you may notice limescale on taps, kettles, shower screens, and appliances. Hard water can also affect how your skin feels after washing, reduce soap lather, and shorten the lifespan of boilers and appliances.

Common signs of hard water include: white marks on taps and glass; limescale in kettles; dry skin or dull hair after showering; reduced appliance efficiency; and soap or shampoo that does not lather properly.

You can quickly check your water hardness using the East Midlands Water postcode checker here: Check your water hardness here.

A water softener reduces limescale, protects appliances, and improves water quality throughout your home.

In very simple terms, a water softener turns hard water into soft water. Water enters the softener and flows into the resin or media tank, where it undergoes a simple process that removes calcium, magnesium carbonate, and manganese, leaving the water soft before it is distributed for use in the property.

As with any household appliance, there is a wide range of prices available. Generally speaking, the more you pay, the better the product quality and the more features you get.

Our water softeners range from small entry-level units costing around £500 to high efficiency models priced at £1,500 for larger residential properties.

While it is possible to buy very cheap water softeners, these are usually low-quality imports with a short lifespan. By investing in a high-quality water softener, you are investing in your home and your family.

All water softeners have a specific lifespan. Once again, the cheapest models typically come with only a two-year warranty; after that period, you may need to replace certain parts or even buy a new unit entirely. As with most purchases, it is best to do your research, find the model that best matches your needs, and then make your purchase.

A high-quality water softener will last at least 10 years, while mid-range models typically last between 5 and 8 years. Longevity also depends on the volume of water passing through the system (determined by household usage) and the quality of the resin.

East Midlands Water Company’s premium water softeners come with a 10-year warranty covering both parts and labor. That means 10 years of guaranteed peace of mind.